Robert Craven's book is 'Bright Marketing - why should people bother to buy from you?'. (And his latest is 'GROW YOUR SERVICE FIRM'.)

Friday, 16 May 2014

Anti-Social Media: a rant

Social Media is not…!

Why do they call it social
media? It is anything but social. It is anti-social.

What social media does can be
really damaging to a business. Under the mistaken idea that they are ‘doing
business’, business owners and sales/marketing people get preoccupied with
social media and replace the basic, traditional forms of sales and marketing
with counting clicks, likes and followers.

The bare facts are that ‘doing
business’ is about understanding who your customers are, what their problems
and hurts are and engaging with them in a way that they buy from you when they
are ready.

Social media may be part of the
recipe but it is not the recipe.

Too many people confuse talking
business with doing business. They become social media-obsessed and confuse
their social media interactions with their original purpose. In effect, they
become busy fools.

Most businesses spend

75% of
their time arguing over communications
channels (LinkedIn or FaceBook or Instagram etc...)

20% of
their time discussing marketing, and

5% of the
time discussing whether they have the
right product for the specific target customers needs.

This is all so wrong. So
upside-down...

You need to turn this pyramid
on its head and spend:

75% of the
time discussing whether you have the right
product for the specific target customers needs

20% of your
time discussing marketing, and

5% of the
time of your time arguing over communications
channels (LinkedIn or FaceBook or Instagram etc...).